In the report 'Micro-Area Poverty Estimates-082' released by the National Statistics Office on Friday, Raksirang ranks sixth among the 10 local levels with the highest poverty rate in the country.
Data has been made public that more than 65 percent of the residents of the remote Raksirang rural municipality of Makawanpur live below the poverty line.
The National Statistics Office released the ‘Micro-Area Poverty Estimates-082’ report on Friday, and Raksirang ranks sixth among the 10 local levels with the highest poverty rate in the country.
Raksirang, which is dominated by the Chepang community, has a population of 25,996 according to the 2078 census. Of that, 17,063 (65.64) percent of the residents are below the poverty line, according to the report.
Rural Municipality Chairman Rajkumar Malla said that the municipality is in the grip of multidimensional poverty due to lack of adequate investment from the federal and provincial governments. ‘Raksirang is not only remote, it is also in the grip of multidimensional poverty. Where there is more poverty, there is no need for more government investment,’ he said.
According to the report, out of 753 municipalities, Junichandi Rural Municipality of Jajarkot has the highest number of 77.89 percent of its residents below the poverty line. According to the 2078 census, 18,551 out of 23,771 people in the municipality are below the poverty line. Similarly, 72.36 percent or 10,330 people in Mugukosoru rural municipality are below the poverty line. Both are local levels of Karnali Province.
Six municipalities in the Far West are on the list of local levels with poor Nepalis. Dhakari in Achham and Sigas rural municipality in Baitadi and Kamalbajar municipality in Achham are in third, fourth and fifth place respectively in the list of local levels with poor Nepalis.
Shikhar municipality in Doti in the Far West and Triveni municipality in Bajura are in seventh and eighth place. Krishnanagar municipality in Kapilvastu in Lumbini and Shivnath rural municipality in Baitadi in the Far West are in ninth and tenth place.
Gharpajhong rural municipality in Mustang is at number one in the list of local levels with the lowest poverty rate. According to the 2078 census, the rural municipality has a population of 3,712. Only 1.18 percent, or 44 people, are below the poverty line.
In Nepal, where 20.27 percent of the total population is below the poverty line, extreme inequality is seen when it comes to the municipal level. The poverty rate at the local level ranges from 1.18 to 77.89 percent, according to the report 'Micro-Area Estimates of Poverty-082' released by the National Statistics Office.
According to Manohar Ghimire, Director of the National Statistics Office, a person who can spend Rs 72,908 annually is above the poverty line.
District-wise, the poverty rate is highest in Achham at 49.58 percent and lowest in Kaski at 5.63 percent. There are populations below the poverty line in Baitadi, Bajura, Mugu, Doti, Kalikot, Bardiya, Kapilvastu, Bajhang and Rolpa. The poverty rate in 34 districts is less than the national average of 20.27 percent and the poverty rate in 43 districts is higher than the national average.
In 2068, the poverty rate of 58 municipalities in the public poverty micro-area estimate of Nepal was highest in Gulariya of Bardiya at 49.6 percent and lowest in Pokhara at 1.3 percent. At that time, out of 75 districts, Bajura had the highest poverty rate of 64 percent and Kaski had the lowest poverty rate of 4 percent.
When the poverty survey was started in Nepal in 2034, poverty rate was 36 percent. In 2048, poverty rate had reached 49 percent. In 2066/067, poverty rate was 25.2 percent. In 2080, the fourth public living standards survey showed that 20.27 percent of the population was below the poverty line.
The 15th Periodic Plan of the National Planning Commission set a target of reducing absolute poverty to 10 percent by 2080/81, but it could not be achieved. The 16th Five-Year Plan passed in 2081 has set a target of reducing absolute poverty to 12 percent by 2085/86.
The highest number of citizens living below the poverty line in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, with 59,218, out of 753 municipalities, is below the poverty line, according to the statistics office. Out of the 862,400 population in the metropolis, 8.87 percent are below the poverty line, according to the statistics office. Director of the statistics office, Ghimire, said that although the number of people living below the poverty line appears to be high due to the large population in Kathmandu, the percentage is low.
